Spring tuition deadline inches closer

As the holiday season draws near, students will have another financial responsibility on their hands — paying for spring tuition by the payment deadline. Classes will be dropped for non-payment on Dec. 19 if arrangements are not made by that point.

Spring registration has been in full swing since Nov. 5, though if students fail to pay their tuition by the deadline, a $50 reactivation fee will be required to allow registration again.

“I can see what [UVU is] trying to do, but in effect they are charging for services before they’ve rendered them,” said student Sterling Juarez, 30. “They’re asking me to pay for something before I’ve actually done something with it. And I get that they’re trying to make sure I have funding arranged to pay for tuition. I think it’s a little counterintuitive.”

Due to record enrollment numbers in recent years, UVU administrators have been making efforts to level student population with new tuition payment deadlines and structured enrollment policies, implemented at the beginning of the 2012-2013 academic year.

This semester, the university experienced its first drop in enrollment since 2006. Approximamtely 1,100 students were dropped from classes for non-payment at the beginning of fall semester, according to Michelle Taylor, associate vice president of student services and enrollment.

Two main reasons comprised the drop in enrollment, including the choice to drop 900 concurrent enrollment distance education students, as well as non-traditional students new to UVU.

The fall tuition payment deadline mainly affected the latter group of students.

“What we did is we looked at these students that had applied and registered after August 1,” Taylor said. “Many of these students are not ready, they haven’t done their testing, they haven’t got their financial aid done and the majority of these students didn’t ever make it through their first semester. They were never able to take the time needed to get ready to be prepared to see their academic advisor to map out their classes.”

Rather than set students up to fail, Taylor said that administration invited those who were dropped in the fall back for spring semester in order to give them ample time to prepare and succeed.

“The goal for our payment deadline is to open up these classes that are being filled with students who may never come and we have students that plan not to come,” Taylor said. “They know that they’ll have their schedule dropped, so why go in and drop it? When we have these really full classes like English 1010, where every section is full, we need those students that aren’t planning to come and that have no way of paying not to be filling those seats.”

When students are dropped from their classes for non-payment and attempt to register again, a notice will appear detailing the $50 reactivation fee.

“Students will have to pick a new schedule again,” said Liz Childs, senior director of enrollment management. “They may be able to get those same classes again, but it’s depending on the wait lists if they’re full.”

In an effort to maintain graduation progress among seniors and students within graduate programs, the tuition payment deadline did not affect registration for these students last fall.

“We did hold graduate students, we held their schedules,” Taylor said. “We held seniors, because we really want them to graduate. We do not want them to lose their classes. Seniors with 110 credits or more will not be dropped for lack of payment, but it is still to their advantage to be on a payment plan or have their financial aid process in place so they don’t have to pay the late fee.”

Students receiving financial aid of at least half tuition or more will not be dropped from classes in the spring, following the same procedure of fall 2012.

“We hold classes if it’s half tuition, because ultimately the student would have paid more than half of their tuition, so yes, that would hold [classes from dropping],” Taylor said.

Spring registration will close at midnight on Dec. 19 to complete tuition payments in the system overnight. It will reopen again at 12:00 p.m. on Dec. 20.

Financial aid status under UVLink is the main resource for students to check if classes are being held.